Monday, August 07, 2006

Howard Dully

Okay, so, like, I had a Wicked Step-Mother. She broke up my family, she played sick whenever I visited, she took all my father's money. And one year on my Birthday she and my father sent me one of her old dresses that she couldn't wear because she had marked it up with indelible ink. So, like, I've been around the block, I'm a total Cinderella when it comes to evil Step-Mothers. And, frankly, I love hearing stories that are worse than mine because it makes me feel less p'o'd. And some evil Step-Mother stories are really really horrid. And Howard Dully has one of those.

Because, like, on Howard Dully's 12th Birthday, his Step-Mother whipped on her tall pointy hat, hopped onto her broom and went to the neighborhood shrink to see about getting her Step-Son a Lobotomy. Yes, that's right, a lobotomy. She said he day dreamed a lot, turned on the lights in the middle of the day, and didn't want to go to sleep at night and she was just plain old afraid of him. You know, the usual Step-Mom complaints. The Good Doctor, Dr. Walter Freeman, said that the decision for the operation was entirely up to Howard's Dad and we all know what it's like for Dear Old Dad to stand up to Manipulative Step-Mom; It just doesn't happen. So, 2 1/2 weeks later, Howard's taken to the Hospital for what he's told are some tests and 2 days later he wakes up with two black eyes and a fuzzy feeling in his head. And, apparently, since he wasn't turned into a vegetable, he was shipped to a Mental Hospital for the rest of his childhood.

Dang, that's a Bad Birthday Party. What kind of a kid has to go through this? What kind of a Jupiter Return year is this? Those Damn Double Sagg's! Ruled by Jupiter, they just have to go overboard with everything they do. And no matter how many ice picks are wiggled around in their grey matter the stuff just doesn't curdle. They are hardy folk. Dully made a Documentary about his life for NPR and said something like "If you meet me you wouldn't know I had had a lobotomy. You would just notice that I'm very tall and very large." They can be very large, very jolly, and although sensitive on the inside, virtually indestructible on the outside. I used to have a Double Sagittarius roommate who would make fun of me for searching around the kitchen for a pot holder. He would grab my pot from the stove with his bare hands and, grinning, stand there in the middle of the kitchen asking me where I wanted him to set it down.

Once again unfortunately I don't have a birth time for Mr. Dully. He's a Sagittarius with noon time chart showing an exact conjunction to his Moon at 9 Sagittarius. This is conjunct Mercury which rules the mind and Chiron which shows a Wounding and an ability to teach through one's Wound. These are all in the sign of the teacher, Sagittarius. This entire stellium is square to his Saturn which shows a conflict in the Father performing his duties, even showing a little cruelty towards the person. What may have helped Howard, though, is the Kite formation in his chart. It involves a Grand Earth Trine between Saturn in Virgo; Mars-Jupiter in Capricorn (Ruler of Sun and probably Moon and Mercury); and Howard's North Node in Taurus. This and the planets in Sagittarius show just plain old good luck. The North Node is in Taurus opposite Venus (ruler of Taurus) in Scorpio-South Node. This shows a subconscious or past-life problem with the evil side of women which can be worked through out the energies represented by the North Node. In this case, Taurus would require someone to be stubborn, practical, grounded, developing through basic self-esteem issues, and earning one's living on one's own.

In 2000, Dully's Step-Mother died. At this point, transiting Pluto and Chiron were passing over his Sagittarius stellium showing a big turning point, a loss, a reopening of a wound, an opportunity for a big healing through personal empowerment. This would have been Dully's Chiron Return also. In addition, his Progressed Sun changed Signs into Aquarius. This could show a change of attitude, a lighter spirit coming out of the insecurities of the Capricorn Progression and more inclined to reach out to his community. He's doing this is a good way. Aquarius is ruled by Uranus which in Howard's chart is at 30 Gemini which is conjunct the Cancer Aries Point. The weird (Uranus) nurturing (Cancer) of his childhood would now begin to be known to the rest of the world. Jupiter and Saturn (organizational abilities) were both passing over it and opposing his natal Jupiter-Mars conjunction. Howard realized that he would now never be able to talk with his Step-Mother about what she had done to him so he began to seek out other Lobotomy Survivors. Eventually his story became known to NPR which aired his story last year. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080

I don't know what else to say except that this is just an exceptional story about an exceptional man. A true Hero.

The Psychiatrist who performed the lobotomy is a bizarre story unto himself: Walter Freeman b. Nov. 14, 1895. Apparently he founded the Hospital where my Doctor works with his lobotomy money. !!!! Rosemary Kennedy died last year. She was a little bit slower than the rest of the Kennedys and so one of the first patients to receive a lobotomy and was left permanently incapacitated. Her mother founded the Special Olympics in her honor. b. Sept. 13, 1918. The Neurologist who invented the Lobotomy received a Nobel Prize for his "contribution." Antonio Egas Moniz b. Nov. 29, 1874 Avanca, Portugal.